to "the low estimation in which women
are held," and says that the likes and dislikes of girls about to be
married are not consulted. Girls are seldom betrothed later than the
seventh to the tenth year, often, indeed, immediately after birth or
even before. The wife cannot sit at the same table with her husband,
but must wait on him "like an accomplished slave." After he has eaten
she washes his hands, lights his pipe, then retires to a respectful
distance, her face turned toward the mud wall, and finishes what is
left. If she is ill or in trouble, she does not mention it to him,
"for she could only be sure of harsh, rough words instead of loving
sympathy." Their degraded Oriental customs have led the Persians to
the conclusion that "love has nothing to do with the matrimonial
connection," the main purpose of marriage being "the convenience and
pleasure of a degenerate people" (34-114). So far this Persian
clergyman. His conclusions are borne out by the observations of the
keen-eyed Isabella Bird Bishop, who relates in her book on Persia how
she was constantly besieged by the women for potions to bring back the
"love" of their husbands, or to "make the favorite hateful to him."
She was asked if European husbands "divorce their wives when they are
forty?" A Persian who spoke French assured her that marriage in his
country was like buying "a pig in a poke," and that "a woman's life in
Persia is a very sad thing."

[37] _Magazin fuer d. Lit. des In-und Auslandes_, June 30, 1888.

[38] The philosophy of widow-burning will be explained under the head
of Conjugal Love.

[39] Willoughby, in his article on Washington Indians, recognizes the
predominance of the "animal instinct" in the parental fondness of
savages, and so does Hutchinson (I., 119); but both erroneously use
the word "affection," though Hutchinson reveals his own misuse of it
when he writes that "the savage knows little of the higher affection
subsequently developed, which has a worthier purpose than merely to
disport itself in the mirth of childhood and at all hazards to avoid
the annoyance of seeing its tears." He comprehends that the savage
"gratifies _himself_" by humoring the whims "of his children." Dr.
Abel, on the other hand, who has written an interesting pamphlet on
the words used in Latin, Hebrew, English, and Russian to designate the
different kinds and degrees of what is vaguely called love, while
otherwise making clear the differences between lik